13 years later...

"Kai, can you go to your room?"

"But.. mother its not even bedtime.." said the boy confused as he glanced to the descending sunlight.

"Because there are some unwelcome guests." answered the Snow Queen with a warning glare to her son. Kai didn't need to ask twice what she meant, and with a pleased look the blonde woman saw the boy hurry up the stairs. "Kai?"

"Yes mother?"

Elsa hesitantly came towards her son, who was now on the same eye level as her due to him standing on the stairs. "Goodnight." Quickly she fluttered a kiss on his cheek, giving him a smile and ruffling his hair.

The Snow Queen watched the boy run up the stairs and then glanced to Marshmallow not so far away from her. "Guard him." muttered the blonde woman as she turned her attention to the intruder outside of her castle.

Yes. as paradoxial it might seem, an intruder outside her home? Elsa chuckled at her own thoughts. It wasn't just this castle. Everything that had but a spec of snow or ice on the ground or in the air, belonged to her. The woman opened the doors, just as the man on the other side of the abyss dismounted his horse. She saw his gaze find her's, and the Snow Queen sighed annoyed at the lustful eyes reserved for her.

Couldn't she enjoy one quiet evening with her son? Her fingers wiggled as her magic began to surge up in her veins, contemplating if she would kill him then and there. Oh, how she liked their scared faces in those final moments. But then again.. she didn't have a good laugh in a while.

If she still could find joy in anything that was.

Elsa watched the royal come up her stairs and nearly a smile appeared on her lips as a plan formed in her mind. Slowly, she turned arround to return inside the great hall, as if she were fleeing.

"Your majesty, wait! I'm not here to harm you!" yelled the man behind her, and she could hear by the bouncing on the stairs that he had gone after her. Good. For another moment though, the woman thought of plummeting him down the abyss, but then decided to go with her first plan.

"Please, just stay away from me!" she yelled, without looking twice. With an irregular breath, the Snow Queen arrived at her second floor, turning arround with eyes wide from fear. "Don't hurt me.." pleaded Elsa as she raised her hands in a defensive way.

She kept her frightened act up as the man let his sword clatter on the ground, before stepping towards her. Immediately as he went forward, so did she take a few steps backwards to keep the same distance.

"You must go please." said Elsa as she nervously looked arround like a caged animal. Oh, yes, dear prince, you really, really should go.

"I told you, I'm not here to hurt you." said the man as he closed the gap between them. "I just wanted to see you. Your beauty is far known across the lands, and I have to tell they don't do you justice."

The Snow Queen nearly had to vomit at his words. God, the same opening lines over and over again! Where had the creativity gone? "You..you think I'm beautiful?" whispered the blonde woman as she clutched her hands to her chest. "I'm not..I'm..I'm a monster."

"You're not. Your sister's accident was just that. An accident. You can't control what you are doing, because you are scared." spoke the man further on.

No. I can't control what I'm doing, because I'm angry.

"But, I'm sure if you could control it, you could do wonderful things with it..."

She let him hug her, all while the rage burst through her veins. How dare he use her sister to attempt to woo her?! Her hands now were placed upon his chest and the man squirmed when he felt her magic hit his heart. In a mere second, his hair was white already.

"You're right. There is both beauty and danger in it." spoke the Snow Queen as she dropped her act to the man.

His eyes widened at the realization of being played himself and the prince hastily knelt at her feet. "Please, please your majesty, I beg of you!"

"Beg? For what? You did nothing wrong..." purred the Snow Queen as she knelt next to him. Oh, how she loved to give and take their hope away. "Except..." hissed the blonde woman immediately after, causing the man's curse to progress even further. "You brought my sister into this." With a careless gesture, the man froze over completely, still captured in his agonizing position. The Snow Queen watched him for another second before clicking her fingers to shatter him. Normally she would have left those statues in the hallway. But for the sake of her son...

Another sigh came out her cloudless breath, and the woman went to check on him, to find him fast asleep thanks to her kiss. She knew her magic was unfaillable and that he had gained a partial immunity to it, so no it wasn't that she would find him dead in the morning like any other normal child. It was merely watching his sleeping face, that made the woman remind herself of happier times. Times with balls, and laughing people and... The Snow Queen took her hand away when ice began to crawl upon the reindeer skin and clasped her hands together once more.

"You can't keep the truth from him forever, you know." a voice made the Snow Queen look to the blonde girl in the doorway. "One way or another, he will see what you do, what you are."

"If you have come to judge me, there is the door" retorted Elsa with a dark glare to her niece.

"I didn't. I'm simply stating a fact." answered Gerda as she put her axe and luggage on the floor. "He'll love you still after you tell him. But, if he were to find it out on his own...he would feel betrayed by his own mother for not telling the Truth."

"Come on, let's go and eat something, shall we?" evaded Elsa the subject with a kind smile towards her niece. She placed her hand upon the girl's shoulder and guided her back towards the dining hall. All the way through, she saw Gerda's dissapproving glare burning through her skull.

Gerda knew her aunt let her, to have some kind of release of her feelings towards her. But she also knew by her face that she shouldn't try a second time. The first time she had done that, she had been set at the door without any boots for her feet to warm.

"How was robbing?" asked Elsa to fill up the silence.

"Good. I met Inger on the way." spoke Gerda to continue the small talk.

A flash of guilt came over the Snow Queen's face but that was quickly replaced by the smile she wore earlier. "Really? How is she? How is Franz?"

"Good."

"And the Duke of Weaselton?"

"Good."

The Snow Queen stared to her angry niece who had begun to unpack the dried reindeer meat and potatoes, that she had bought with the stolen money. "Gerda, come on please. Talk to me. We could always talk." pleaded the Snow Queen. She hated the silence, she hated her niece for being so much alike her mother. She hated her son for being so much like his father.

But as much as she or Kai infuriated her sometimes, she couldn't do what she did to all others who travelled here.

"We talked. But you didn't want to listen" said Gerda in a manner of fact as she went to the fire place to roast the meat. "You and Kai are only alive because I give you everyday a piece of my plunder."

"I haven't forgotten that." Before it was Kristoff who did Gerda's task. Before he got caught in an avalanche, starved to death in a valley he couldn't get out. It had left Gerda an orphan at the age of 8 and she had gone to the Snow Queen whom Kristoff claimed to be her aunt.

But with a then 2-year old child she hadn't actually wanted, the Snow Queen had already her hands full, giving Gerda no other choice but to join a group of robbers instead. But when Kai was finally old enough, when the Snow Queen felt ready enough, Gerda refused to stay permanently with her. "They had become her family as well in this winter" was the girl's explanation.

It was to rub salt in the wound, the Snow Queen knew. But again, she wouldn't hurt her. It was the only piece of her sibling she had left. If she or Kai were to die, she didn't know what she would become. It actually terrified the Snow Queen at the mere thought of not having their light in her life.

"Aunt Elsa?" Startled, the Snow Queen looked up, to see Gerda worriedly staring at her. "Is everything okay?"

"I'm not hungry anymore." muttered the blonde woman as she stood up from the table to retire to her room.

Gerda watched her aunt walk out of the room, before sighing and eating her own meal by herself. After she had cleaned everything, the girl glanced to the west, to see the sun already setting. It would be a suicide mission to find the robber camp now. With pain in her heart, the robber girl thought of her late father. Everytime she had asked about her mother, he had shut down completely before turning the subject on to something else. But one faithful night, he had finally given in to her wishes and told her that he would tell her when he came back.

He never came back.

It was Franz who had found the man on his way to the East mountain, and Inger who had told her the news as well as the Truth about her mother.

Gerda turned her mind back to her aunt. She didn't know what was wrong with her. She seemed angry..but also lost in a way on how to deal with her child. Pushing her aunt meant only more and more resiliance to actually let Kai in. She couldn't tell it Kai herself - it would sent the wrong message both to her nephew and her aunt. Especially her aunt. The Snow Queen may love her, but her love only ran so deep.

Ugh! Gerda stomped her feet against the table before storming off. She needed to do something about this situation, but what?! Hadn't her aunt learned anything from her past? The truth had a way of coming out one way or another.

Hold on.

The truth.

She could not do anything, because of her close involvement to both sides. But there was someone who was neutral in all of this. The robber girl sprinted towards the highest floor, passing Elsa's room in the process. A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she heard the Snow Queen play on her piano: she knew that could take quite a few hours before she came to check on her. As quick as her feet could run on the stairs the girl reached at last her destination.

Did she have to rhyhme her verses? The robber girl shrugged. "Mirror mirror on the wall... uhm..." Gerda scratched her head for a while. "Get over here and answer the call."

The mirror before her seemed to glow faintly in the darkening room and waves rolled across the glass as if a sea was crawling on it. Then, the girl could finally make out a humanoid form.

"Who is it?"

Gerda frowned. This wasn't what she expected. "Mirror, mirror..."

"I heard you the first time." interrupted the voice quite prickled from inside the glass. Slowly a foot appeared, before placing itself on the icy floor. The young girl walked backwards when a man emerged from out the glass. O-kay. This was not what she was expecting.

"Now what was so urgent you wanted to take me out of the Mirror?" asked Hans to Elsa's niece in front of him. For goodness sake, Alice had nearly died by the Queen of Hearts by her not so subtle interruption.

"I..uhm... Its about the Snow Queen." said Gerda with shuffling feet. Honestly, she didn't know what to make of this man, let alone his connection to the Snow Queen. How would he react to her name, and to the news she brought him?

The man's eyes darkened. "I don't want to aid her, and neither wants the Snow Queen to help herself."

"Well, I want to." said Gerda with her chin high.

The man-in-the-mirror let out a laugh at her naiveté. "You're not the first who tried to thaw her frozen heart, and they all failed. What makes you stand apart from all the others?"

The robber girl nearly lied - but upon seeing his green eyes, she realized she could not lie to him, just as he could not to her. He would know, and he would not take it kindly. "I'm her niece."

She had expected a surprised reaction, but she didn't expected it at such a scale. The man's eyes widened and his body turned arround to face her, making her feel completely naked under his gaze. "Hold on.. you're Gerda right?...you're Kristoff's daughter?"

"You knew him?" asked Gerda in return when the man-in-the-mirror spoke her father's name.

"Yes, I..." Hans stopped at her use of past tense. "Hold on. 'knew'?" But he didn't need a spoken comfirmation when he saw the girl's gaze go downwards. Oh. the man swallowed his tears away. "I can't ressurrect the people from the dead."

"I know that." grumbled Gerda. "Were you deaf upon hearing me? I need your help to knock some sense into my aunt."

"And why should I?" retorted Hans with bored look. Why should he pull his neck out for a cause that won't matter? Elsa had made it very clear she did not wanted to see him again after she had restorted the Mirror. Foolish him had believed she had cared for him as much as he did for her during that one night stand.

Oh sweet irony. Hans chuckled at the thought of their reversed roles, but when he heard Gerda ramble on, he stiffed at a particular word:

"The Snow Queen doesn't want to tell my nephew about her freezing all those princes and I warned her about the truth coming out one way or another-"

"Ho, stop!" ordered the man as he waved his hand to get her attention. "Your nephew?!"

"Yeah, I know its hard to take in that a evil sorceress has mothered a child but you'll get used to it."

Hans paled at her words. "Gerda, who's the father?"

"Aunt Elsa didn't want to say, although Franz insinuated that it was a chap named Hans or something like that. He got nearly blasted out the window for that if Inger didn't catch him." murmured the robber girl as she thought of that particular night. "Got to be quite the weakling if he didn't wish to raise a child with her."

"Well, maybe that weakling didn't know because he was kept oblivious to it for an entire decade!" shot Hans behind his shoulder.

Gerda's eyes widened when she realized whom she spoke to. "Oh, did I say Hans was a weakling?" chirped the robber girl when she saw his angry face. "I...uhm... he's quite cunning! yes, cunning, if he could escape her kiss!"

Hans couldn't help it and laughed at her answer, his rage now only reserved for the blonde woman below this floor. "Behold, like mother like daughter."

"That's what everyone says." comfirmed Gerda with an insecure smile to the redhaired man. "Although, I doubt I can fill her footsteps."

"You don't need to. You may have your mother's unique choice of words and your father's sharp mind, but you are still you. And that is what makes everyone smile. Now. Where is my son?" asked Hans immediately after he saw Gerda blush at his compliment.

His son. The words felt strange on his tongue, and yet that person existed in this castle.

And Elsa hadn't told him.

True, time needed to heal all wounds. He had taken her freedom, and then made her with child. Anyone would be beyond mad and not wish to speak with the person who caused it all.

But come on, who can hold a grudge of 10 years?

Apparently Elsa could. And she would have done so for another decade if determinded Gerda didn't disobey her. Hans gritted his teeth at the Snow Queen keeping his son willingly away from him. The reflections in the room darkened, became edgier by his angry state of mind.

"Uhm.. Uncle?"

"Just call me Hans" said the man absent mindedly as he followed the girl towards Kai's chamber.

"Hans, could you uhm... tone in your shadows?"

the man glanced confused to the girl, but then saw what Elsa's niece meant. "Right. Sorry." apologized the former prince without actually caring if it sounded convincing or not. His mind was completely taken over by the ghostly image of his son.

It felt like a dream. How would he look like? Would he have more of Elsa's features or his? How was his personality? Was he sheming and curious like him, or was he quiet and reserved like his mother?

With a shaky breath, the man knocked on the door, but found no response. "well, here goes nothing..."

Both entered Kai's room, finding him fast asleep in blankets of reindeer skin.

"Go on, get to him!" nudged Gerda when Hans stayed frozen on the spot. The small encouragement of the robber girl made the prince step forward, kneeling at the head of the bed. His hand reached out to touch the boy's soft auburn hair so alike his own, when it hesitated above it.

Go on, you can do this, thought Hans as he tried to get his nerves under control. You've fought snowmonsters and wolves... surely you can face your own child?

The man took a deep breath, before laying his hand upon the crown of the boy's head. "Wake up." His own magic was connected to Elsa thanks to the link he had created. It was a simply matter of concentration to snap the spell she put upon Kai.

In complete silence, Hans watched Kai's eyes flicker open. Their glassy look vanished as the sleep faded away, and the boy rubbed his eyelids when he saw the strange man next to him. Surely he had to be dreaming?

But when the imaginery man didn't dissappear like his beautiful dream, the boy realized with great fright that someone had broken in. "Who are you? I'm warning you not to come any closer!" threatened Kai as he took his dagger out his cushion, pointing it towards Hans.

He had quite the courage to stand up against a man twice his strength. "I'm not here to cause you harm Kai." spoke Hans calmly as he showed his empty hands."If you don't want to take my word, take that of your niece's."

Kai's gaze flickered quickly to his niece, whom he vaguely saw from the corner of his eye. He kept close attention to Hans though, not wavering his knife by an inch. "Gerda?" asked Kai for an explanation.

"Its true, Kai."

"Who's to say you haven't brainwashed her?" asked the boy suspicously to his father.

"You know when someone speaks the Truth or not." went Hans on as if they were in a normal conversation. "Don't ask me how. I know." emphasized the man on the last word, causing Kai's eyes to widen.

They stayed silent for a while, as the boy let his knife slowly drop to the ground. He knew the names of people instinctively, and he knew him to be Hans. But there was another word, far stronger that escaped his lips. "Father?" It felt so natural to call him that way, somehow so right.

Hans nodded and Kai screamed in joy as he embraced his returned parent for the very first time. The boy couldn't help but cry tears of happiness, and even Hans had to swallow a very tight lump from his throat.

Immediately after they parted from their hug, Kai blurted out: "Why didn't you come earlier?" Although he was overjoyed to see his father, he couldn't help but ask the most prominent and even slightly accusing question that had occupied him his whole life.

Hans sighed and bowed his head at his son's question. "I didn't know of your existence untill 5 minutes ago." spoke the man as he smoothed the boy's hair.

"But.. mother said..." Kai went quiet. His mother had always told him his father had died in an accident. He knew it to be a lie, but he had presumed it was to protect him from the gruesome details involving his father's death, as well as her still hurt feelings.

"What did she say?" asked Hans when the boy went quiet. "Kai, what did she say?" pressed the man on when the silence kept growing.

He didn't wish to cause a fight between his parents - judging by his father's face, he wouldn't exactly have a civilized conversation with his mother. "If I tell you... will you promise not to hurt her?" spoke Kai his condition.

"Yes." But when he saw his son's scrutinizing face, Hans winced. When children were even better at seeing the Truth then yourself, it stung indeed. "Fine. Yes, I promise." spoke Hans with great reluctance, as he meant it this time.

Kai shot him a dashing grin not unlike his own, and took him once more in a hug. "Now, come on, let's find a way to break the ice to moth-" the boy stopped mid-sentence when he saw the Snow Queen at his bedroom's doorway.

Hans frowned confused at his son's sudden silence and followed the boy's gaze.

"Aunt Elsa! hi, so.. nice to see you so soon!" spoke Gerda with a nervous smile.

"Apparently I'm too early. You really insulted my intelligence if you thought I didn't hear you stamp all the way up the highest floor" said Elsa with an icy glare to her niece.

Gerda swallowed under her aunt's furious gaze and ran out of the room. After the icey door closed with a huge CLUNK, Elsa turned her attention back to her son and its biological father.

"Kai, perhaps you can go with Olaf for a walk?" asked Elsa just as calm as ever.

"No. I'm staying here." came the just as equal sharp reply.

"Your father and I have some discussions to solve. You don't want to be involved in such boring adultery matters" spoke the Snow Queen. Her eyes however began to betray her patience wearing thin.

"This matters as much for me as my dad!" shot Kai back as he pointed his finger to his mother. "You lied to me! You told me he had died in an accident!"

"And he did. I just withheld some parts for you."

Kai scoffed and his hands curled to fists. "Really? What else have you been hiding from me, mother? Are you even my mother?"

Elsa's anger broke for a moment, hurt at her son's accusation. "Kai, off course I'm your mother." But when her son recoiled under her touch, stepping towards Hans instead, her eyes hardened once more. "5 minutes knowing you, and he already turns against me." spat the Snow Queen as she looked to Hans.

"you did that yourself. Did you forget all the lessons you've learned, Snow Queen?" asked Hans as he tucked Kai behind him. "Your lies and anxiety cause the destruction of those you love."

"And ambition and lust for power that of yours! Which is why I kept him from you in the first place!" shot Elsa back as snow began to dwindle down the bedroom. The Snow Queen's hands began to glow blue and she raised them, causing Hans to do the same.

"I promised the boy not to hurt you." said Hans as a last attempt to stop the castle from becoming a slaughter field.

"Shame. I didn't." sneered Elsa as ice spikes began to race torwards the man.

Hans waved his hand, to divert her magic from his body, when a sudden shadow sprang into the direction of the glass and ice. "Kai don't!"

But it was too late: both parents could only watch as Kai got hit by their magic.

The boy gasped as he felt something sharp penetrate his heart and eye. Due to the shock his body couldn't stand up any longer and he fell down on the ground, clutching the places his parents had struck.

"Kai!"

Their dispute forgotten, both parents knelt simultaniously on both sides of Kai's body, watching his hair turn white as Hans' father once.

"An act of true love..." muttered Hans as he held the boy's head stable in his lap. "You have known him longer then me. It has to be you." spoke the man as he glanced to the Snow Queen.

"Alright..." brought Elsa out, as she kissed her son slowly on the cheek. Although she hadn't wanted Hans' child, she couldn't bear to leave him for the wolves either. She had grown to love the boy, in her own special way.

She just hoped it would be enough to save him. But when she opened her eyes, her stomach sank at the sight of Kai's white hair.

"It would have been better if I'd never been born." croaked Kai out.

"What? No, Kai don't say that!" Tears began to swell in Elsa's eyes but they didn't fall yet.

"You didn't want me." frowned Kai as he glanced to his mother in a eerie clarity. His gaze then shifted to Hans. "And you broke her heart just because it suited you. Gerda was wrong bringing you two together once more, but she had hoped... I had hoped..." A groan came from the boy's mouth as another spasm went through his body. "I thought we could be a family."

"I'm so sorry I withheld the truth from you... But I did it because I wanted to keep you from harm. I didn't tell your father because the Mirror possesses great adversaries that would use you as a bargain, to expose our weakness. And I didn't tell you about your father because... I was afraid you'd leave me behind for him." confessed Elsa as she took hold of his hand - it had now reached a temperature colder then her own. "I was afraid to get hurt."

"I broke your mother's heart, because I didn't wish to have power in the first place." declared Hans quietly. "But as you may know, your mother is quite persistent if she wants something."

Kai smiled when he understood their reasons. "Then try to mend those differences. For-" The boy gritted his teeth in pain when another pain wave crashed through his body."Is it going to hurt?" whimpered Kai with huge eyes from fear as he felt his heart rate go slower by the second.

"No. Its going to be quick. You won't feel a thing."

"O god, Kai!"

Elsa glanced up when she heard Gerda's voice echo through the room. Normally, she would have demanded as for how she got past Marshmallow and after that she would have kicked her out - but with her son on his deathbed, she didn't want to take Gerda's chance away to say goodbye to her friend. The Snow Queen shifted aside, so Gerda could take hold of the ice cold boy to cuddle him close.

Kai glanced confused to the girl who cried on his shoulder, before turning his head to the two people next to her. "Who are you all? Get away from me!" spat the child with a viciousness that shouldn't be there at such a young age.

Hans shut his eyes at the murderous look his son gave them. It was the Mirror's doing - Although he controlled its power now, Snowwhite's corruption would stay for another few decades before her heritage vaporized by his presence.

The boy tried to free himself from his niece, but Gerda was much bigger and stronger then him, holding him down with ease. "Kai, stop!" begged the robber girl as the tears streamed down her cheeks. "Kai, its me, Gerda. I'm your niece!"

At the shout-out, the boy stopped struggling, looking at the girl with big eyes as if he saw the Northern lights. Gerda's grip loosened on him, sighing in relief when the boy's hands went suddenly to her neck.

They would have succeeded in squeasing her life out of her lungs, if the Snow Queen didn't order the wind to put him against the wall, with shackles arround his arms. Even after his attack on her, Gerda wasn't demotivated into bringing her friend back and hugged him once more. "You're going to be alright, Kai.. I promise..." The girl moved her head closer to give a boy a kiss on the nose, when his recoiling face made her kiss his cheek instead. The silent hostile refusal of her affection now made the girl fully burst into tears, causing them to drip from her chin.

Unseen by everyone the drops of water went straight through the light shirt the boy wore, glowing slightly gold-yellow in a flower-like pattern.

Kai shook his head when a strange warm feeling went through his chest and his eyes then fell on Gerda, who was still weeping. "Girl? Why are you crying?" The boy's lip trembled at the sight of seeing her so heartbroken, and he burst into tears as well. The magical glass and ice that both his parents had accidentally bestowed on him, were resented by his body like they would treat a virus. The white hair and the murderous fog that had clouded his mind, vanished like snow in the summer. "Gerda..." A smile came up his face when he could remember her name again, and he then looked to his father and mother. "Mom.. Dad!"

As quickly as possible, the Snow Queen released her own son from the shackles she made up and the four took each other in a hug, crying and laughing on what they had almost lost but still had.

"This can't go on, this...tension between us." spoke Elsa with great difficulty as she calculated her words.

"No, it can't." sighed Hans as he rubbed his neck. He glanced to the nearby room, where Kai was solving a jigsaw puzzle he made for him. The boy was smart and Hans had to keep making more and more difficult ones to keep him occupied. The simple ones, like a triangle or a square had he solved in minutes. So instead of figures, Hans had thought out a word instead. "Try to find "Eternity" with the pieces." said the man as he saw Kai's eyes lit up at the challenge. Gerda meanwhile, had gone hunting with Aslog (her reindeer) to provide them with food. Well, more like providing her and Kai food - both he and Elsa didn't need as much primal needs anymore.

"Hm, what?" Hans blinked at Elsa's questionning face.

"I said I can't keep you and your son from seeing one another. But seeing how destructive our relationship is between us, how can we ever provide a safe home for him?" nodded Elsa to their son. "2 minutes in, and we were already at each other's throats."

Hans hummed. "Perhaps.. we should try to find a common ground with each other first."

"You want me to leave my son behind?" brought the Snow Queen incredulously out.

"I'm not saying that!" snapped Hans back at her accusation, holding his hands up in defence. But upon seeing Elsa's raised eyebrow, the man's resistance broke. "Alright, yes... maybe." said the man as he stared to his fingers, suddenly finding them incredibly interesting. "But just for a few weeks. A vacation as it were. It would do you both good. Kai could go with Gerda-"

"No! I'll not have my son as a robber!" protested Elsa at his proposal.

"Fine, fine!" Hans rubbed his throbbing head. God, whoever said parentage was easy, he was going to strangle that person. "Then we'll leave him with the Duke. I'm sure he would love to feel young again."

The Snow Queen pursed her lips before nodding.

"Great!" clasped Hans his hands together as he stood up from Elsa's self-made frosty chair. "Where do you want to go?"

"What?!" chirped the blonde woman out. "When I said to have a vacation, I didn't mean... I thought a little bit later then..you know, now?!" waved the Snow Queen her hands arround as to indicate where they were.

Hans chuckled at her stressed-out face. "Yes we will go now." clarified the prince as he took her by her arms.

"But Kai needs to be brought-"

"Gerda?!" bellowed Hans from in-between the doorway across the hallway.

"Yes?" yelled the robber girl back.

"Would you love to go with Kai to the Duke of Weaselton for a few days?"

"...sure, I'll bring him!"

Hans grinned like the chesshire cat as he turned his head back to Elsa. "Solved."

The Snow Queen narrowed her blue eyes at the misschievious look he gave her. "I don't like when you go all unpredictable."

"And I don't like it when you think too much on what can go wrong. You'll need to let him go on his own wings at some point." retorted Hans. "I trust the boy. And he's not alone in this, either."

"I know, but what if-" The Snow Queen couldn't speak any further when Hans pressed his lips against her.

"God damnit, I forgot how annoyingly pessimistic you were" growled the man as they parted from their kiss.

Elsa pushed the man away from her, swiping her mouth while doing so. "If insults are all you have to offer, you can go."

"It wasn't meant to be seen as an insult, Snow Queen." sighed Hans as he stared to her back.

"Really? You have weird social etiquette at your country then." The Snow Queen bit her lip from letting herself answer at his riddle.

"You show me..." began Hans as he put his arms arround her, "that I haven't control over everyone or everything. You defy me time after time..." His eyes darkened, and Elsa shuddered on seeing his reflection in the icy wall. "And yet, I see you don't believe me." noticed Hans as he saw her unchanged face.

"No." said Elsa, still afraid to care, still afraid to get hurt, to love. Her fingers twisted arround and her cheeks reddened. What if it was all a play once more? She couldn't cope such betrayal a second time from his part.

"Then ask me your question, my queen" whispered Hans in her ear.

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall... who's the fairest of them all?" With a trembling voice, Elsa brought out the rhyme, watching Hans' reflection instead of his true face next to her. She wasn't afraid that she would hurt him if his love for her wasn't true... she was afraid she wouldn't hurt him.

"You are, my queen."

Elsa's eyes snapped open when she heard his answer and she could only stare at his dark eyes, shining with a vulnerability she had never seen in him before. "Now... its time to ask my question to you, Queen of my heart. Would you give up your beauty divine, to be in the mirror of mine?"

"Yes... I would."

Even before she spoke Hans already saw the Truth on her face and he moved in, pressing his lips against her for a second time that day. But, noticed the Snow Queen as she drunk herself in the moment, it felt somehow different. As if something was put into place, something she had lost, so long ago...

When they parted, breathless from the lack of air, Elsa glanced to the icy walls in front of them. "What..." Her wrinkles vanished as if they were never there, and her face rejuvenated back to when she was in her 20's.

"I took your reflection with me the first time we kissed." said Hans as if it were the most normal thing to do. "Due to me restating it in your body, well... it won't age like myself."

The Snow Queen swallowed when she realized what the man had done. "You would spend Eternity with me?" brought the woman out. With all the fights they had, after all they had been through... he still wanted her?

"Does it need saying?" came Hans' whisper to her ear.

No. No it didn't. He wouldn't say those words to her. And neither would she. "Where can we go?"

Hans' eyes lit up. "I don't know, Snow Queen. Your question is my command... but you'll need to be more specific, I'm afraid."

The woman turned her body arround so they stood chest to chest. "I've always wanted to see the Mirror-worlds you visit. What was the one you said? Underland?"

"No, Wonderland." chuckled Hans at her mispronounciation. "Although the Queen of Hearts isn't quite fond in seeing me after helping a girl escape. Barely made it out alive when she threatened to lop my head off."

Elsa's eyes darkened. "We'll see about who's head shall get rolling."

The two walked to the Looking Glass, side by side, and the two hesitated on who should go first. "You should-"

An akward silence fell when they started their sentence at the same time and Elsa opened her mouth to say that Hans should go first, when a hand clasped into her's.

"Together." In shock, the Snow Queen looked instinctively downwards when she felt warm human flesh instead of the soft silk fabric.

He didn't have his gloves on.

the blue eyes of the Snow Queen glanced back up to her Mirror and for the first time since the very first night they had met, a genuine smile came up the woman's lips.

"Together." repeated the Snow Queen as they clutched each other's hands. With a mere step, the two vanished through the Mirror.

The end.

Oh don't look so sad, dear reader. Yes, you there. Now, don't shy away, I won't bite. You've read my story – our stories, to be more specific – so I assume you would want to know what happened to all the people you started to care about.

Oh. I see.

You're probably wondering who I am. Or perhaps you already have began to guess and even then you still have unanswered questions as for how it, how this is possible.

Yes, I'm that same Hans Westerguard. Now, don't start to blush or faint, although I can perfectly understand with my good looks.

…

That writer of yours tells me to shut up, because she has a lot more to do then being possessed by freakish male version of bloody mary. (But to get to a serious point here… don't do that little prank where you say her name 3 times in the mirror. I warned you. If you don't heed my advice well then there is absolutely no way that I could ever save you.)

Now, hold your horses everyone, before you decided to bring the torches. She's totally fine and unharmed besides the cramp she has gotten from writing.

…

Alright, alright, I get on with it! Well, where should I start? There are so many goodbye's I need to say.

Father. For the first time I say it without bitterness or hatred. For all the time you still have left on this world, we cherish it together with my brothers. Queen Elsa managed what your own kin couldn't manage by opening your eyes. The Southern Isles stand once more behind their King, as will I.

Lord Duke. I respect your cunning, I don't approve of your often extreme methods and laugh at that incredible stupid toupee of yours. For all the things you've done, I won't hold them against you… however I will not forget. I still don't like you, but let there be peace between us from this day.

Franz. stubborn proud brother, although you will never admit it out loud, the Ice Maiden seems to have given a peace to you that neither of us knew you needed. Go to those mountains you seemed to get so fond of, and stay away from conspiracies and deceit. They don't suit you well.

Inger. I know you don't want me to, but my guilt will always follow me whenever I see you. Your smile is enough to lift my heart a little bit, still unchanged by the Snow Queen's ice. Yet, there has manifested a hardness inside of you that I can't help but admire. Take care of my brother. I'm sure you're most capable of keeping him in check.

Kristoff. Upon speaking your name, my heart breaks for you, brother. You held on to your beliefs like a rock, speaking your mind with a just heart. You were simply too good for this world. Rest with your princess, mountain man.

Anna. Another name that tastes bitter on my tongue. Even a human is fallible, and I misjudged you at first sight. You've shown yourself to be quite the capable woman during your sister's absence, although your impulsiveness and kind heart never seemed to waver under pressure. Know that your daughter is safe and sound in her own capable arms.

Snow Queen… It is still hard for me to express what-ever is between us. It always was that way, and I suppose we'll keep struggling with it until eternity. You can't say you love me, yet you can't hate me either, and this is mutual. We've both been shaped by our actions, our desires and our environment to reach our highest potential. Power will always be what we strive for in an never ending game of words and magic.

I can live with that.

And what of the man who broke her heart, the 13th prince of the Southern Isles? He would like to think he has learned something about trust, about friendship and love. That he has washed his hands in a clear pond. No. He's a cold hearted powerhungry liar. Nevermind him. Let it go. Let it be that way.

I can live with him.

Can you, dear reader? I've told you a story… but are you sure this is the right one? I've had my share into bringing the variations of our tale to your writers, so who's to say I don't lie to you once more? Its up to you whether you believe or not and eventually expand on it.

To change it. To make it your own. To write your own Truth.

Truth is after all what you make it yourself. I can not change how you see me, or vice versa. Even if you wished me to, I don't wish to change myself. I don't regret my past actions, I won't listen to any of your so called counsel, even with my small dissatisfaction of the man I am. Hans will always stay Hans, even on Judgement Day.

Goodbye, and hallo.

I never thought this fic would grow so large. It was meant to be a cute romantic one shot. And look where that has brought us all!

Honestly, I would never have made it that far without you favoriting, reading and reviewing this story! It kept me going till the last minute, and this will probably be one of my favorite self-written stories.

So again, thank you.